Technologies that provide new ways to manipulate the genome and epigenome of cells can have considerable impact in medicine and biotechnology. Such technologies can be used to correct genetic diseases or be used to endow agricultural organisms with desirable qualities, such as drought and pest tolerance.
Current technologies enable the editing of small segments of the genome and epigenome, for example, a segment that covers one gene. These technologies are also static and often silenced or shut off over time leading to the loss of beneficial effects, especially when the effect is to regulate the activity of a gene.